Turning point

Blaney came down pit road late in the race for new tires, and the fresh rubber allowed him to run down Dillon over the final five laps and put him in position to attempt a pass for the lead, which still came up short.

Three who mattered

Austin Dillon: You wouldn’t know it by the last two laps, but Dillon spent the vast majority of the race completely dominating the competition. At one point, only seven cars were on the lead lap.

Ryan Blaney: His rocket-like ascension to the front surprised even Dillon, who asked over his team radio where Blaney came from.

Erik Jones: Jones was substituting for the injured Kyle Busch, and like Busch at Daytona, Jones wrecked and slammed into a wall unprotected by energy-absorbing SAFER barrier. He was unhurt.

Observations

▪ Three weekends of official NASCAR racing so far this season and we’ve now seen three hard wrecks by drivers into unprotected walls. Whatever the reasons this problem cannot be addressed immediately need to be addressed now.

▪ It was the highest of highs and lowest of lows for Richard Childress Racing. Dillon won the race and teammate and title contender Brian Scott developed engine problems and was forced to the garage shortly after the race began.

▪ Saturday’s race provided another look at the budding young talent NASCAR has coming through the ranks, including Darrell Wallace Jr., Blaney, Jones and Elliott.

They said it

“When you have something like this, you just don’t want to mess it up.” – Austin Dillon, race winner